• Lacework, a cloud-native application security provider, has raised USD 1.3 billion in an extension to its Series D co-led by Sutter Hill Ventures, Altimeter Capital, D1 Capital Partners, and Tiger Global Management. It included participation from new investors like Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Durable Capital, and Franklin Templeton as well as all existing investors. The round values the company at USD 8.3 billion, a more than eight-fold increase from the USD 1 billion sticker price achieved during its last raise in January 2021. The company’s Series D is the largest-ever funding round recorded in the security industry and brings its total funding to USD 1.9 billion. Lacework is also gearing up to go public via an IPO or a direct listing in the future.

• The company will utilize the funds to fuel product innovation and product development to expand its total addressable market; pursue strategic acquisitions, building upon its first-ever acquisition of the infrastructure-as-code (IaC) startup Soluble, which seeks to enhance the company’s platform and existing workflows; double down on the channel; accelerate go-to-market efforts; hire additional staff; enhance existing product capabilities to cover a wide range of use cases; and expand global presence in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

• Lacework recorded more than 3x YoY growth in revenue, 3.5x YoY increase in the customer base (counts “hundreds of customers”), which includes the likes of LogicMonitor, Hypergiant, and Sprinklr, and has more than tripled its headcount to over 700 employees globally over the past nine months. The company stated that its channel partners have influenced over 60% of its new business in recent quarters and contributed as a major driver of its go-to-market efforts.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Lacework’s USD 8.3 billion valuation positions itself behind Snyk’s valuation of USD 8.5 billion, achieved during its Series F in September 2021, and Sentinelone’s implied valuation of over USD 8.9 billion, attained during its IPO in June 2021. Netskope , a similar cloud security startup was valued at USD 7.5 billion during its Series H funding round in July this year.</ul>